California primary elections may help elect Republicans and Democrats, but they're not all that democratic.

That's the estimation of former state Sen. Steve Peace (D-San Diego), who is pushing for an open primary system through a ballot measure voters could decide on in 2010.

The measure was filed with the state in September, then withdrawn in October after receiving public comments. Peace said that he and other members of the California Independent Voter Project will study the comments and make small changes to the measure before submitting it again.

Peace said the concept is based on an open primary used in Washington known as the "top-two" system, where voters could cast ballots for members of any party in a primary election.

Under the top-two system, the two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary, regardless of party, then advance to the general election. Peace noted that many cities already use such a system in mayoral elections, for example.

"I don't think it changes the outcome, but it changes behavior," Peace said. In primaries now, he said, party nominees are largely chosen by a small, ideologically rigid group of voters because Democrats and Republicans largely don't allow registered voters from other parties to vote in their presidenital primary.

The Democratic and Republican parties do allow decline-to-state voters to cast ballots in some primaries, however.

One observer said there's another advantage to a top-two system: courts have found it constitutional for now.

"The top-two was held up by the Supreme Court as legal, and California's open primary was not," said Douglas Johnson, a fellow at the Rose Institute at Claremont-McKenna College in Los Angeles.

He referred to a "blanket primary" system used in California in the late 1990s that was ultimately thrown out.

When elected officials know they'll be accountable to all voters in a primary election, Peace said, they're more likely to work with politicians in other parties.

"In the primary, the nominees are picked by a plurality," Peace said. "You can't get a democratically elected member in the current system."

 A top-two primary would also give greater say to third-party candidates, Peace said. Right now, such candidates are largely irrelevant in a general election other than to take votes away from a Republican or Democratic candidate, he said.

Using a top-two primary, general elections could conceivably pit a Democrat against a Green party candidate in San Francisco, for example, or a Republican and Libertarian candidate against each other in Orange County, Peace said.

"If the goal for a third party is really into getting involved in public policy, this is a way to do that," he said.

At least one expert on voting systems, however, disputed that third-party candidates would benefit from Peace's proposal.

Richard Winger, publisher of the San Francisco-based Ballot Access News, said that when the "top-two" primary was used in Washington elections this year, not one third-party candidate made the general election ballot.

Further, he said, from 1990 to 2002, Washington used a blanket primary, where all candidates appeared on the same ballot regardless of party during an primary election.

Only once during that stint did a third-party candidate make a general election ballot as a result of the blanket primary, Winger said.

"It's possible, but very unlikely," he said of Peace's belief in more third-party a top-two system, but Peace said they'd be fighting what the country's forefathers envisioned when they set up the United States' early political system.

Until about 150 years ago, Peace said, third-parties would regularly form, make contributions to public debate and even replace one of the major parties of the time - as happened with the Republicans and Whigs.

It's only more recently, he said, that the two major parties have used court decisions to keep third parties from playing a more active role in crafting policy.

"I'm a Democrat, and if we passed this I believe ultimately my party will be better for it," he said.

If government reformers like Peace truly wanted an open primary that both forced changes and passed constitutional muster, Winger said, they'd try an open primary system used in 20 states that allows voters to pick which party's primary ballot they'll vote on, regardless of their own registration.

Another alternative would be elimination of the primary election and institution of a ranked-voting system with instant runoffs, Winger said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has raised open primaries as a government reform he's hoping to enact, and Peace said he'd welcome the governor's support as part of a bipartisan group backing the measure.

But Peace said he's not overly impressed with the Schwarzenegger-backed reform proposal 11-Proposition 11, which would change how political districts are drawn.

"Candidly, Proposition 11 won't be a big deal one way or another," Peace said. "On the margins, it's kind of an improvement."

Johnson, of the Rose Institute, said voters favor concepts like open primaries and redistricting, but can get confused when such a topic is actually on the ballot.

In reality, he said, redistricting and open primaries have more power together than apart.

"There used to be a fairly numerous bipartisan caucus in the legislature," he said. With those two reforms in place, he said, that could happen again. "You'd see more debate over issues," he added.

Peace said his group is more likely to next take up another topic for possible reform: the state's taxation system.

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